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Rajasthan to be part of tourist circuit planned by centre

Posted by: editor September 29, 2014in INDIA, TOURISMComments Off on Rajasthan to be part of tourist circuit planned by centre

JAIPUR: Rajasthan will get one of the five new tourist circuits that the NDA government is currently working on to give a boost to tourism, which figures on the priority list of prime minister Narendra Modi.

Tourism minister Shripad Naik, who was in the city for the ‘Jaipur by Nite’ event, organized by CII-Rajasthan, said that the Centre has allocated Rs 500 crore for the five new circuits which will come up at different locations in the country.

“The government will allocate Rs 100 crore for each circuit and one of the circuits will be in Rajasthan,” said Naik. However, he declined to share the destinations that will constitute the new circuit in the state and said the whole exercise is in the process and will be finalized in two months.

Modi has on several occasions said that the growth of tourism will create multiple economic activities that will benefit different sections of people.

Naik also said that e-visa initiative will be finalized soon and the government is targeting countries which are bigger supply markets.

“We would like to extend the e-visa facility to countries which have potential to generate larger volume of tourists for India. That’s why initially we will focus on bigger countries first,” said Naik.

With regard to the concerns of extending the scheme to China, he said it’s the call the home ministry will take. “Principally, China has lot of potential as a supply market but it’s not for us to decide. The home ministry will take a call on this,” added Naik.

He said that the government is keen to roll out the scheme in the couple of months from now.